CambridgeSoft announced today that Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has licensed CambridgeSoft's electronic notebook, E-Notebook for use by Arena's chemistry group.

Arena's chemistry group, which includes medicinal, analytical, and process chemistry, carries out experiments using traditional, parallel, and microwave chemistry. Through the utilization of E-Notebook, Arena's chemists will be able to complete their day-to-day record keeping in less time as compared to traditional paper record keeping by utilizing the rapid experiment creation and planning capabilities that are a part of E-Notebook. In addition, they will be able to more readily utilize and incorporate information from experiments carried out in the past as new experiments are planned out, which should lead to improved experimental efficiency and ultimately faster lead optimization.

"Our chemists were able to quickly learn how to use E-Notebook and take advantage of its time saving experiment planning tools, and saw that it integrated easily into our research environment," stated Graeme Semple, Ph.D., Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Arena. He added "I have been a strong believer in electronic notebooks for some time and am pleased with the capabilities E-Notebook provides."

"We expect to see time savings in the transference of information from our researchers to our IP group allowing for more efficient IP filings," stated David L. Bradfute, Ph.D., J.D., Senior Director of Intellectual Property at Arena. Dr. Bradfute also stated that "the ability to electronically archive and search records which might date back many years will strengthen our ability to manage our IP."

"Arena is joining the fastest growing information technology application of E-Notebooks for use within discovery, development and manufacturing," stated Michael G Tomasic, Chairman & CEO of CambridgeSoft. "We are very pleased that they will be joining the largest group of pharmaceuticals, biotechs and chemical companies who have standardized on our E-Notebook."

E-Notebook is a complete alternative to traditional paper lab notebook record keeping. It is a fully customizable web based application for the management and retrieval of the information and data created within a research, development, or manufacturing environment. E-Notebook incorporates research specific capabilities which are designed specifically to meet the needs of the various types of users who would typically be keeping paper records. E-Notebook is 21 CFR 11 compliant and can be used in validated and non-validated environments.

Arena is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on the discovery, development and commercialization of drugs in four major therapeutic areas: metabolic, cardiovascular, inflammatory and central nervous system diseases. Arena is developing a broad pipeline of compounds that act on an important class of drug targets called G protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs, and that are being developed using Arena's proprietary technologies, including CART™ (Constitutively Activated Receptor Technology) and Melanophore. Arena also has research collaborations with Merck, Fujisawa, Taisho and TaiGen for products in a number of different indications.